Comparison

Read two legal systems against each other

Because every portal follows the same fifteen-section outline, the comparison is genuinely like-for-like rather than a collage of whatever each government happens to publish.

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Comparison of selected legal systems
Attribute	ParaguayReviewed	MalawiReviewed	UgandaReviewed	LithuaniaReviewed	BhutanReviewed
Legal family	Civil law	English common law with customary law	Mixed (common law and customary law)	Civil law	Mixed common law and Buddhist customary tradition
System of government	Unitary presidential republic	Presidential republic	Unitary presidential republic	Unitary semi-presidential republic	Constitutional monarchy
Constitution	Constitution of the Republic of Paraguay	Constitution of the Republic of Malawi	Constitution of the Republic of Uganda	Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania	Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan
In force since	1992	1994	1995	1992	2008
Capital	Asunción	Lilongwe	Kampala	Vilnius	Thimphu
Official languages	Spanish, Guaraní	English, Chichewa	English, Swahili, Luganda	Lithuanian	Dzongkha
Currency	Paraguayan guaraní (PYG)	Malawian kwacha (MWK)	Ugandan Shilling (UGX)	Euro (EUR)	Bhutanese ngultrum (BTN)
Population	6,900,000	20,900,000	48,600,000	2,860,000	787,000
Division of powers	Unitary with seventeen departments and the capital district, each with an elected governor and departmental board holding administrative and limited fiscal competence. Legislative power is national.	Unitary with three regions and 28 districts administered by local councils. Traditional authorities exercise recognised functions over customary land and local dispute resolution.	Presidential system with a Prime Minister, a unicameral Parliament, and a judiciary in which the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal (sitting also as the Constitutional Court) and High Court form the superior courts.	Semi-presidential government with a directly elected President focused on foreign and security policy, a Government answerable to the Seimas, and a separate Constitutional Court.	Unitary with constitutionally entrenched local government: 20 dzongkhags, each with an elected Dzongkhag Tshogdu, plus gewog and thromde councils. Article 22 requires devolution of power to elected local governments, and local bodies have defined planning and revenue functions.
How law is made	Bills may start in either chamber and must pass both. The President may object in whole or part; Congress overcomes an objection by absolute majority in both chambers. Constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote of each chamber and ratification by referendum; wholesale reform requires a constituent assembly.	Bills pass three readings in the National Assembly with committee scrutiny and are presented for presidential assent, which must be given or withheld within 21 days. Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority, and amendments affecting entrenched provisions additionally require a referendum.	Bills receive three readings with committee scrutiny; certificates of financial implication are required for money bills. The President assents, returns the bill twice with recommendations, or it becomes law if passed a third time by two-thirds.	Bills are adopted by the Seimas and signed by the President, who may veto and return a bill for reconsideration.	Bills pass both houses; disagreement goes to a joint sitting. The King grants assent, and if he withholds it the bill returns to a joint sitting where a two-thirds majority carries it. Money bills originate in the National Assembly. Constitutional amendment requires a three-quarters majority of a joint sitting and, if the King so directs, a national referendum.
Legal profession	A law degree and registration of the title with the Supreme Court, which maintains the roll and exercises discipline. Bar membership is voluntary. Because both Spanish and Guaraní are official, courts must provide interpretation, and practitioners outside Asunción are commonly bilingual.	A fused profession of legal practitioners admitted by the High Court after a law degree, regulated by the Malawi Law Society under the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act.	Fused; an LLB, the Law Development Centre post-graduate diploma and enrolment admit an advocate. The Uganda Law Society is the professional body.	Advocates belong to the Lithuanian Bar Association; notaries handle property, company and succession formalities.	Regulated by the Bhutan National Legal Institute and the Jabmi Tshogdey (Bar Council) under the Jabmi Act. Practitioners, called jabmis, require a law degree — historically obtained in India — and a licence; the Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law in Thimphu graduated its first cohort in 2022, so domestic legal education is very new. The profession is small, numbering a few hundred licensed practitioners.

A comparison table flattens nuance by design. Where a difference matters to a decision you are making, open both portals and read the section in full — the constitutional detail behind a one-line summary is often the part that governs the outcome.